What causes aircon water dripping? Your aircon, which is cold, naturally will produce condensation. Thus, all air conditioners have an inbuilt water collection tray, which is connected to a water pipe to discharge the condensate water. For more details pertaining condensation, please read condensation. Common Causes (4 possibilities + 1 infrastructure problem), watch video: What causes aircon water dripping (Part 1) What causes aircon water dripping (Part 2) 1) Aircon water dripping is usually caused by choking of the air conditioner's condensate drain pipe or aircon water tray. Look at the disgusting jelly! Wondered where these jelly came from? Please read What people do to sabotage their air conditioners (unknowingly). More disgusting "jelly": 2) But it can also be a result of ice forming at the aircon fan coil. 3) Otherwise, it can also be due to choking at the back internal water tray of the aircon blower. (meaning; it is not choking the main water pipe nor the main water tray) 4) The condensate water drips through the fan coil instead of gliding down into the water tray. This problem occurs when doors and or windows are not properly shut while aircon is in use, it may even be caused by temporarily opening the door as you step out of the room for a short while. This problem is often found in newer fan coil designs and especially for inverter air conditioners. If you prefer to set the aircon temperature low (eg. 18'C-23'C), your aircon will be more prone to such problem. Why? Modern fan coil are often built smaller and the fins are packed very close to one another. Worst, the fan coil takes an inverted V shape: As can be seen from the picture above. As the hot air (red color) hits the cold fan coil surface, condensation occurs. In a hot humid country like Singapore, it means lots of condensation. In theory, this condensate water will glide down the surface of the fan coil, into an inbuilt water tray and discharged via the water pipe. BUT! In reality, especially when humidity level is too high after raining or your air conditioner may be located above the attached bathroom door entrance and you open the toilet door after taking a hot shower. These high concentration humid air will cause the surface of the fan coil to be super wet, it actually fills up the fan coil air gaps. As the fan draws the air through the fan coil, it pulls the condensate water through the fan coil. These water droplets either end up hitting the fan rotor or drips onto the inside of the aircon. You will see water dripping from the aircon, but usually it doesn't drip as much as compared to water dripping caused by a choked water pipe. Certain brand and models are more prone to this problem because of the angle of tilt of the said inverted V. The temperature of the fan coil does play a part and that's why an inverter aircon which produces more cooling capacity may be more prone to this problem. So do remember to keep the room properly shut. After running the aircon for some time, the air in the room will dry up and this problem will go away. If you have more that one aircon in a big room (eg, living room), turn on both or more aircon units to share the burden of removing the water moisture. Do not burn essential oil or use perfume stuffs in an aircon room. It will promote JELLY growth. If these JELLY chokes a portion of the fan coil, it means that air will flow faster through other part of the fan coil that is not choked. This will increase the chance of pulling the condensate water pass the fan coil. JELLY is transparent and it can form really fast, so please listen to my advice, no perfume in an aircon room, please. Troubleshooting (infrastructure problem and icing problem): Question 1: Do you experience aircon water dripping problem during the first year of installation? Yes - this means that something is wrong with the way the water pipe is laid. The soft flexible water pipe could be bending upwards as shown on picture below. Do you notice the pipe bending like an "U"? This area will readily trap dust and dirt and thus very prone to choking the aircon drainage system. Otherwise, as we often encountered; the entire length of the pvc pipe is laid too flat and in some case, even tilting slightly upwards. Solution: If it is the soft flexible pipe that is too long and bending upwards, it should be shortened or replaced with a solid pvc pipe. Should the entire length of the pvc condensate pipe is installed with a terrible gradient, and further assuming that reinstalling the pipes is not desirable, then, installing an external water pump can be considered. This is how the pump looks like: aircon water pump without cover Boxed up aircon water pump with sound insulation. No - this means that the water pipe is good enough to handle your aircon condensate water for at least a year. Question 2: Icing problem Try removing the filters to take a look at the fan coil, can you see if you can see ice forming? No ice Ice on aircon fancoil If there is an icing problem and if it is severe enough, you may hear the sound of the aircon blower "cracking" as the ice gets larger. Usually water dripping will be intermittent. This happens when the ice melts when the compressor cuts off. But if the icing problem is not severe, you will not hear any "cracking sound", but will experience constant aircon water dripping, but usually less water as compared to a choked drain pipe. The ice interferes with the water that is supposed to drip into the water tray, it drips outside instead. If it is indeed an icing problem, it means it has a low gas pressure problem. Since the gas pressure is dependent on the heat exchange properties of both the indoor fan coil as well as the outdoor condensing coil. Both must be properly cleansed before any attempt to charge up the gas. An overcharged system will KILL your compressor. Please read How reliable is your compressor? Why is my aircon dripping water so frequently nowadays? It could be that you requested for "General servicing" only; which clears the choked water pipe, washes the filters and vacuum the fan coil. Nevertheless, the dirt that chokes your drain pipe comes down from the fan coil (accumulating dirt over the years). Vacuum, steam treatment or DIY self cleaning solutions are not effective in removing the dirt from the fan coil. What this means is that after the pipe is cleared, the dirt from the fan coil will soon be washed down and choking the aircon condensate water pipe again. Things got worst when you burn essential oil, lamp berger, air humidifier or burn incense. They will cause jelly build up which clogs your fan coil and drainpipe as soon as 3-6 months. For more details, please read Things people do to sabotage their air conditioners. 1) As mentioned above, general servicing is not effective in removing the dirt from the fan coil. What this means is that after the aircon water pipe is cleared, the dirt from the aircon fan coil will soon be washed down and choking the aircon water pipe again. This problem will be amplified if your water pipe is laid too flat; it is not tolerant to dirt accumulation. Thus we have to thoroughly remove the dirt from the fan coil, so that there will be less dirt washing down and clogging it up again. 2) Modern air conditioners bend a part of the aircon fan coil to the back, probably to save space. This is the cross sectional view: This means that condensation is occurring both in front as well as at the back of the air conditioner. Please see a picture taken top down, with the fancoil pivotal shifted left downwards, exposing the back of the fan coil internal water tray . See how choked up it can be: When this internal water tray is choked, the condensate water doesn't even have a chance to flow to the main collector tray in front via 2 small openings at both sides of the fancoil. Therefore, no matter how many times you cleared the water pipe, water dripping will still come back. The back coil will get cooler slower than the front coil. Thus, condensation may not be immediate. They usually start to drip after some 30 minutes or more; the technicians would have left by now. Due to the tight space and gap, it is almost impossible to clear the choke using a vacuum or attempting to wipe it using a cloth. Check how we overcome this problem: click here |
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Therefore, do not ask for general service when you have an aircon water dripping problem. At most, it will stop the leak
for a short while, but most of the time, they don't work at all. Furthermore, when the fan coil is so dirty as to choke the
pipe, it is high time to give it a thorough cleaning, don't mess with your health. Typically, the dirty water we collected
from a proper aircon cleaning always looks like this, this is the air you breath everyday:
for a short while, but most of the time, they don't work at all. Furthermore, when the fan coil is so dirty as to choke the
pipe, it is high time to give it a thorough cleaning, don't mess with your health. Typically, the dirty water we collected
from a proper aircon cleaning always looks like this, this is the air you breath everyday:
biz. reg. no: 52959937J
